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Rifftides

Doug Ramsey on Jazz and other matters...

Archives for September 16, 2008

Sonny Rollins: Exit The Dragon

September 16, 2008 by Doug Ramsey

The scourge of heroin addiction among jazz musicians of the 1940s and 1950s is central to dozens of stories, novels, poems, plays and movies, most of them dreadful, overwrought clichés. Bad art aside, the monkey on the backs of musicians was real. It rode many of them to their graves. Unhorseing … [Read more...]

Compatible Quotes: Sonny Rollins

September 16, 2008 by Doug Ramsey

I think as long as people can hear a record and hear people like Lester Young on a recording, there will always be a great inspiration for somebody to try to create jazz. - Sonny Rollins No one is original. Everyone is derivative. -- Sonny Rollins There was a period which I refer to as the 'Golden … [Read more...]

Doug Ramsey

Doug is a recipient of the lifetime achievement award of the Jazz Journalists Association. He lives in the Pacific Northwest, where he settled following a career in print and broadcast journalism in cities including New York, New Orleans, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, Portland, San Antonio, … [MORE]

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